


Blame it on the Night

by Adder24



Category: Person Of Interest - Fandom, The Night Manager - Fandom
Genre: M/M, Rine
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-01
Updated: 2018-04-09
Packaged: 2019-02-26 12:33:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,236
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13235832
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Adder24/pseuds/Adder24
Summary: Pine wasn't one for New years celebrations, so he opted to work a shift as the night manager at the Plaza Hotel in New York, along with the new security guard John Campbell but as the busy hotel started to quieten down, a window of opportunity opened up for an outside team to take advantage.





	1. The Heist

**Author's Note:**

> Please note: I have not visited the Plaza hotel and there is not much in terms of floor plans easily accessible, so locations of rooms may not be 100% accurate

The Christmas and New Year period is one of the most busiest for hoteliers in New York, people from all over the world coming to the city to see the sights and sounds and to ring in the new year in style. Every hotel was heaving at all hours of the day, signing in guests, checking guests out and ensuring everyone is well looked after and comfortable.

The Plaza, located near central park was no exception from the holiday rush as the rich and the wealthy came to the city for grand and lavish parties held in places only open to those of a certain status and with the reputation of the hotel at stake, they would need their best reputable staff on hand to serve those with high expectations. Jonathan Pine was one such member of staff, he was the night manager of the hotel and was more than willing to work the night shift on New years eve along with the new security guard that was drafted in to help with the rush.His name was John Campbell, he was six foot two, same height as Pine, well built with rugged facial features, striking blue eyes and black hair with Grey flecks. He greeted the guests, was polite and the women seemed to like him as well as the men.

They were rushed off their feet with the comings and goings of guests, so much so that Campbell was drafted in to be a bellhop and escort guests to their rooms as well as carrying out his normal duties. He was a hard worker and Pine respected that.

It was ten at night before the rush finally died down, Pine was at the the desk double checking that every guest that was to be checked in that day, had a room and every guest due to be checked out, were checked out. He looked up from the computer and saw Campbell standing by the doors, watching the streets outside. Pine smiled, he asked the girls on reception to watch the front desk and then approached Campbell, noticing the steely blue eyes were soon upon him.

“Can I help you Mr Pine?” He asked, his voice whispery and gruff  
“You can actually, I’d like you to join me for a drink as a thank you for the hard work you have done today”  
“I shouldn’t drink while I am on duty”  
“A soft drink then….come on, it’s New years eve, relax a little, It’s Ten O'clock, it’s quiet and the girls are watching the front desk”  
“Alright”

Pine smiled and lead the way to the palm court, New york’s iconic destination for afternoon tea. The room was grand, bright and airy. It had a stained glass roof over head, palm trees in pots, scattered around the foyer, lavish tables and chairs and a round bar in the centre of the room which was used in the evenings for cocktails. Pine approached the bar and pulled out a two stools for the both of them, Campbell took his place as Pine sat down and placed an order at the bar. He ordered himself a neat whiskey on the rocks and Campbell a mocktail since he didn’t want to drink while on duty.

“It’s on me” Pine said as he slid the drink across to Campbell “You deserve it for jumping in and being a bellboy for a few hours”  
“Thanks” Campbell replied before he examined the drink, raising an eyebrow at the sprigs of mint jutting out of the glass and blueberries floating around in the liquid “What is it? A drink or a salad?”

Pine chuckled

“It’s a Mocktail and that one you have is a blueberry mojito”  
“So blueberry juice trying to be fancy”  
“Yeah you could say that” Pine chuckled as he took a sip of his whiskey “I prefer to call it an adult soft drink”

Campbell smirked and rolled his eyes as he took a swig of the drink, taking a moment to determine if he likes it or not, it wasn’t awful but it wasn’t exactly exciting his taste buds, still he appreciated the gesture.

 

“So how come you’re here and not out there partying the night away?” Campbell asked as he glanced over at Pine who was busy playing with his glass.  
“Not my thing” Pine responded as he exchanged glances with Campbell “I don’t get why you would waste time and money watching a clock countdown another year? It’s the same as any other day only the number at the end of the year has changed, that’s all. What about you? Don’t you have a wife to be sharing it with?”  
“Divorced”  
“Oh....sorry to hear that”  
“You wasn’t to know. We spent more time apart than together...so it was mutual. You?”  
“Single but are you surprised with a job like this?”  
“You have a point” Campbell replied as he took another gulp of his drink

They sat at the bar talking and getting to know one another and it came as no surprise when Campbell revealed that he was former special forces, he didn’t say what unit he was with, only that he had done things for his country that he wasn’t proud of. After a while he left the forces and started a career in security, it was a bit more slow paced compared to what he was used to but it was a welcome change of pace. He climbed through the ranks and had a good reputation which was why he got the job at the Plaza, he came highly recommended. Pine then went on to tell Campbell of his life, how he got into the hotelier business and how he became the night manager of the plaza but what seemed to heighten Campbell’s interest is that fact that Pine served for his country and was also a part of the queen's guard, He toured Afghanistan three times before he left. He had to, he was suffering with severe PTSD and it was making him seriously ill and was almost sectioned if he had not received the right help.

“I mean sure….night manager of a hotel doesn’t sound as exciting but at least I am not in a warzone twenty four seven…”  
“Unless it’s Christmas” Campbell replied dryly  
“Yeah...Unless it’s Christmas”

They both chuckled, Pine finished off his whiskey as Campbell took the last gulp of his Mocktail, pushing the empty glass towards the bar keep. He was about to speak when they both heard a loud bang from across the lobby and screams of terror from horrified guests. Both Campbell and Pine lept from their seats and sprinted across the palm court towards the lobby but as they approached the entrance to the lobby, Campbell moved in front of Pine and shielded him, ushering him to the side of the entrance while he peered round the wall to inspect the lobby. There were guests laying on the floor with hands over their heads, staff alongside them as six men, dressed in urban camouflage and wearing masks with skulls painted on, stood over the prone guests and staff menacingly, each of them holding assault rifles. One of the six men stood in the centre of the lobby, he had a black cap and wore sunglasses over the mask as well as a black hoodie and urban camouflage pants, he was clearly the brains behind the operation

“Anyone of you so much as THINKS about contacting the police, I will have my boys smear your brains all over these walls!” He snarled as he eyballed the members of staff standing at the desks with their arms up “Our demands are simple, hand over all your money and valuables and no one gets hurt ”

Campbell quickly looked at Pine

“Does this hotel have a vault where you hold valuable items for guests?” He asked  
“Yes”  
“Who has access to it?”  
“The managers on during the day and night”  
“So that will be you then”  
“Correct. You need to get through three stages of security. Voice recognition, eye recognition and fingerprint recognition before you can enter the vault. The door is blast proof and can sustain quite a lot of damage, so homemade bombs, grenades and RPG’s will only leave a scratch. To get access they will need me….”  
“And once they get what they want, they will dispose of you, I can’t let that happen Pine”  
“They are going to take the guests as hostages. What choice do I have?”  
“Pine this is suicide”  
“I’d rather be killed then them take the lives of innocents. I was a soldier, I know how this works...They will have two to three teams…this team of six will make sure no one comes in or goes out, they will have another team sweeping through the hotel as we speak looking for the vault and when they find it they will alert the head honcho and the third team will be the biggest team and the ones sweeping every floor of the hotel, making sure no outside influences like the police or S.W.A.T get in”  
“Then we need to find a way to stall them”  
“There is a way…..every night at midnight, the system reboots itself for updates in it’s software. During that time no one can access the vault, it will be on complete shut down”

Campbell looked at his watch, it had only just gone eleven and he knew that it wasn’t going to take a team of determined, well trained thieves an hour to locate the vault, they would have done their research and scouted the place out beforehand, locating the areas relevant to their interests and making maps of their location. He would need to force the update to start sooner. Campbell reached up to his ear piece and tapped it.

“Finch you there?”  
“Always, is everything okay Mr Reese?”  
“Got a bit of a heist situation going on but other than that the New Years party is going to go off with a bang”  
“Are they professionals?”  
“They have three teams...one to watch the lobby, one to find the vault and one to make sure the cops don’t ruin their plans.”  
“You need to make sure no one gets hurt Mr Reese”  
“I’m working on it...Pine told me this hotel has a vault that has three stages of security. Voice, Eye and fingerprint recognition and the doors are blast proof, however the system updates at Midnight and the Vault will be on lockdown...Do you think you can push that update forward?”  
“I can try”  
“You don’t need to try Finch, you’re a master”

Campbell turned to look at a now bewildered and confused Pine, who was possibly now wondering if He was on his side or working with the thieves

“Who was that?” He asked  
“A man who can help, how long will it take for you to get to the vault?”  
“Twenty minutes, why?”  
“That should be plenty of time for me to access the system and force the update Mr Reese” Said Finch over the ear piece  
“That’ll be plenty of time to let my friend do what he needs to do. How long does the update take?”  
“An Hour, two hours maximum”

Campbell nodded and peered round the wall to check the movements of the team in the lobby, their leader was still firmly rooted in the middle of the lobby while another was behind reception, emptying the cashier registers and putting the money in a sack while the remaining four walked up and down the lobby, covering and securing all area’s. Campbell then noticed the leader reach for his walkie talkie as it fizzed and crackled to life.

“This is Alpha team B, we have secured the vault. Over.”  
“Well done Alpha Team B, Alpha team C have we managed to track down the manager. Over?”  
“We’ve checked the office sir but there is no sign of him. Over”

The leader put the walkie talkie back in his pocket and gathered up his assault rifle before he calmly took a deep breath and grabbed one of the staff members at his feet, by the scruff of his neck, thrusting the assault rifle under the man’s chin, the man squeaked in fear, trembling uncontrollably.

“So tell me…..are you the manager of this hotel?” He asked the man  
“...N-No, I’m a bellboy, I’m just a bellboy….I have family, please don’t kill me”  
“Well...If you have family, I’m sure you won’t mind telling me who your manager is and where the hell they are hiding”

The man was about to speak but his trail of thought was interrupted by the sound of footsteps approaching them, the man nervously turned his head to see Pine walking towards them calmly, adjusting the cuffs on his shirt as he caught the leaders gaze.

“I am the night manager. I hear you are looking for me”

The leader dumped the man unceremoniously on the floor and turned his attentions to Pine, watching the tall blonde haired man walking towards him. Despite the situation he had an air of calm about him as well as a touch of arrogance. 

“Stop right there” The leader barked as Pine stopped dead in his tracks “Put your hands on your head...slowly”

Pine responded to his request, putting his hands on his head, slowly as requested, watching as the leader marched towards him and started to pat him down, making sure Pine didn’t have any firearms hidden on him.

“Open the vault, let us take what we need and no one will get hurt”  
“And if I don’t?”  
“Then People will die until you do.” The leader snarled before he aimed his rifle at a lady laying on the floor, all dressed up to go out and celebrate the new year. “Starting with her, open the vault or she won’t see the new year. Your choice”

The woman cried in terror as the barrel of the rifle loomed over her head. Pine swallowed hard, the last thing he wanted was the blood of innocents on his hands because he was trying to be a hero.

“I’ll take you to the vault. It’s a twenty minute walk from here”  
“Good man” The man said before he looked up at the others within his team “I need two guys on me, the rest of you make sure no one comes in or goes out...shoot any that even try”

Two men joined him as the leader pushed Pine in front of him. 

“Mr Reese?”  
“Finch, do you have eyes on them?”  
“I have access to their security feeds and I am working on that update, twenty minutes should be enough time to force the update early, it’ll give you an hour to get people to safety and secure the hotel as well as save Pine’s life.”  
“Easy”  
“I admire your confidence Mr Reese but one false move could cost you and Pine’s life, you can’t afford to be rash”  
“Tell me something I don’t know Finch”

Reese tapped his ear piece and peered round the wall to see Pine being lead away by two of the gunmen and the leader, the remaining three pacing up and down of the lobby, watching for any potential runners. He wasn’t armed for the moment do that potential exit was blocked for the time being, which meant his other way out was heading towards the Terrace room, another grand room that was attached to the Palm court. Reese made a run for it, ducking behind the bar for cover, checking to see no one had seen him before he sprinted towards the Terrace room, usually it would be a hive activity, there would be revellers down on the dance floor while people sat in the plush sofas around the outside of the dance floor and up on the upper tiers but there was no one. Finch was was indisposed, Reese was going to have to rely on instinct if he was to succeed in not getting caught.

He darted between the pillars of the grand arches, sticking to the shadows as he carefully made his way across the room, the low purple lighting making things slightly easier for him to blend in but as he reached the foyer to the Terrace room, he heard voices, Male voices that echoed around the empty room. Reese carefully approached the foyer, ducking behind a pillar before peering round to see six armed men patrolling around the foyer, all of them in the same Urban camouflage and their faces covered by masks with skulls painted on them while more guests lay on the floor at their feet, hands over their heads, as well as staff that had been flushed out from the kitchens close by.

“Sir, the terrace foyer is secure what are our orders?” One man asked  
“Patrol the area, make sure no one leaves, shoot any that try.”

The man grabbed his walkie talkie and pressed the button to speak.

“Beta team one what is your update?” He asked over the comms as it crackled into life  
“We’re sweeping the first floor as we speak”

The man continued to check in with the teams currently sweeping the hotel as Reese looked around for an alternative way out, the words spoken by finch ringing in his ears, if he made a move on any of the armed men he could potentially put Pine’s life at risk as well as the other guests. His only option was to make a dash for the kitchen. He monitored how they patrolled, waiting for the perfect moment to make his move and as soon as an opportunity presented itself, Reese made his run, dashing down the stairs before diving into the kitchen, the doors making a dull thud as they shut behind him which caught the attention of one of the men patrolling nearby.

“Check it out will ya!” One man shouted.

Reese quickly grabbed a heavy saucepan off one one of the preparation tables and stood near the door, tucking himself out of sight. He heard footsteps quickly approaching the entrance before the door was slowly pushed open, thankfully hiding Reese from view for the moment, he then noticed the barrel of the rifle slowly emerge followed by one of the thieves who slowly entered the room. Reese gripped the large saucepan in his hand and stealthily approached the man from behind waiting for the right moment before he swung the saucepan and whacked the guy across the head. He crumpled to the ground, out like a light as Reese quickly took the rifle from his hands. He knew it wouldn’t be long till his friends noticed he was missing, he had to find another way out other than the fire exit that would take him out onto the street. He quickly scouted the kitchen out and noted two large service lifts used to provide food for room service as a plan started to come together in his head, to use those as a means to go from floor to floor and intercept the other team sweeping through the hotel. In theory the lifts should open up into a seperate catering room for staff to collect cutlery and the essential things needed to serve the guests.

John quickly entered the lift and and pressed the button for the second floor, ready to intercept. He pressed his ear piece as the lift started to ascend.

“Finch what’s the latest with the update?”  
“Almost done, soon as Pine tries to access the vault the update will come into effect”  
“And the whole vault will be on lockdown”  
“Giving you an hour to take down those thieves and ensure the safety of those guests and Pine”  
“Like I said. Easy”


	2. The Takedown

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Reese has approximately an hour to clear three floors of trained gunmen, two lobbies, save all the hotel guests caught up in heist, stop the heist and to save the life of the night Manager Johnathan Pine. Who said being a Hotel security guard on New Years eve wasn't fun?

Their footsteps echoed as they marched through the underground corridors towards the vault room, their guns trained on Pine as he calmly lead them, unphased by their menacing presence, he had been in situations like this before, the difference though, was he was armed in those situations, here he wasn't and he was putting his trust into someone he had never seen or spoken to before. 

As they approached the vault room, the team of thieves that found the vault stood guard in front of the door waiting. Pine checked his watch. It was twenty past eleven, enough time for this friend of John’s to push the upgrade through and stall the thieves. He walked up ahead a little bit and approached the door to the room. It was a thick blast proof door that only required an encrypted key card to open, one that was only issued to the managers and was linked to the Hotel security system, not an independent one. Pine swiped the card through the reader, the little green light flashes green and the door started to open automatically. Once it was open, Pine was then able to lead the men into the vault room, it's walls were painted a royal blue colour with steel panels underfoot, the main vault door was round with two locking mechanism on the front and had a circle of white LED lights around the outer edge. In front of the door was three separate control panels, each one a different security measure to open the vault. 

“What are you waiting for? Open the vault!” The leader barked as he pushed Pine towards the control panels. 

Pine stumbled a little before he regained his composure, he looked at the man and then adjusted his blazer in defiance before approaching the first panel which was the fingerprint reader. If the update had pushed through it should, in theory deny him access. He took a deep breath and carefully placed his left index finger on the reader and as he did the lights around the door changed to red. John's friend had did it but the men weren't exactly impressed. 

“Oh that's not good” Pine said calmly  
“What's the hold up?”  
“Well I can't get in”

He pointed to the lights above the door as the leader approached him menacingly, standing right in front of Pines face. 

“You said you was the manager” He hissed  
“I am”  
“Then why can't you open the vault? Are you playing games?”  
“I can assure you I'm not”

The man didn’t hesitate, he cracked pine across the side of his face with the butt of his rifle, leaving Pine back with a deep gash across his left eyebrow, which quickly swelled, impairing Pine’s vision slightly.

“Open. The fucking. VAULT!”  
“I can’t!” Pine replied “It’s updating it’s systems and it locks everyone out”  
“Then stop it!”  
“I can’t do that either”

The man clicked his fingers and the men surrounding Pine all trained their rifles on him as the tension in the room increased by ten notches. Pine swallowed hard as he desperately fought back the fear that was lurking, managing to not break his gaze from the leader, who was staring menacingly back at Pine, trying to make him buckle under the pressure but only finding stubborn resistance staring back at him.  
“If you kill me, you won’t be able to open this vault and don’t think you can rely on C4 or an RPG to blow it open because it will only leave a scratch. The update is controlled by an automated system and nobody, not even tech support can stop it, so you either wait until it’s done...or you kill me and walk away knowing you failed. Your choice.”

There was a tense momentary pause as the men continued to train their rifles on Pine, awaiting orders from their boss who was busy trying to read Pine, to figure out if he was calling his bluff or if the man standing before him was actually telling the truth. A low growl escaped the man’s lips and reluctantly he signalled for his men to lower their guns.

“How long will it take?” He asked  
“One or two hours, depending on how big the update is and no...there is no telling how big it will be, we will just have to play it by ear” Pine replied as he stared the man dead in the eyes  
“Then we will wait till it’s done...and if I find out you have been lying, then I will not hesitate to put a bullet between your eyes.”

He grabbed the walkie talkie off his chest rig and opened the comms channel, lifting it to his lips

“All teams, we have a bit of a technical hiccup with the Vault, so keep the hotel on lockdown till I give you my say so. Over”

All teams checked in but out of all the voices coming over the comms, there was one that Pine recognised. The rough gravelly voice that seemed to be like honey to the ears, including his own. It meant a certain security guard had taken down one team.

_____________________________________

The elite team of six that was sweeping through the second floor, were swiftly dealt with by Reese as he picked them off one by one, knocking them out, breaking limbs, and disposing of them via the laundry shoot. Of course he kept back a walkie talkie so that the leader wouldn’t get suspicious but he knew there was more than one team sweeping through the floors, from what he could gather there was at least three teams sweeping the floors alone. He tapped his ear piece as he made his way back to the catering room to get the lift and intercept the next team.

“What’s happening Finch?” He asked as he pressed the button to call the lift.  
“The update was successful Mr Reese but it seems the leader doesn’t have much patience”  
“So how much time have you bought me?” Reese asked  
“An hour at most”  
“Well….I have had worse”  
“I don’t know what possibly could be worse Mr Reese”  
“Try twenty minutes to clear an entire village”  
“Well as much as I admire your confidence in your own abilities, we can’t risk chances.”  
“Tell me something I don’t know”  
“Just be careful Mr Reese”

Reese rolled his eyes and tapped his earpiece, cancelling the call as he called the lift, the doors sliding open to allow him inside. Once he stepped inside, he pressed the floor he needed to intercept the next team, information he overheard over the comms while the teams checked in. The doors closed and the lift carried him up to the ninth floor and in the few seconds it took to get to the desired floor, Reese reloaded the rifle ready to kneecap some more unsuspecting targets. 

As the doors opened, Reese stepped out cautiously, checking his surroundings, the catering room was clear but Reese could hear voices directly outside the room, two of them. Reese looked around the room, there was nowhere else to hide, other than back in the lift. He clenched his jaw and retreated back into the lift, hiding out of sight as he heard the door to the room open.

“Hey, what’s the lift doing up here?”  
“I don’t know. The room seems clear, check it out”

It was walking into a trap as Reese made light work of disarming the two men without a shot being fired and then immobilised them, fracturing their wrists and knocking them out, before he tied their hands up tightly with the crisp white cloths used for the service trolleys. He now had four more to deal with and since the corridors were straight up and down it wasn’t going to be too hard to find them. He carefully opened the door from the catering room, checked the area was clear and then took a left, slowly walking down the corridor, his rifle raised in case he was to bump into the remaining four. So far so good, they weren’t in front of him or behind him but it didn’t mean to say they weren’t moving in on him. As he approached the bottom of the corridor he heard voices coming from the opposite side, he stopped at the end and quickly peeked round the wall, there was nothing on the left but as he looked to the right, he saw the four approach, all of them spreading out to cover more ground. Reese ducked back behind cover, he knew he couldn’t take them all on at once, he would need to split them up or cause a distraction and there wasn’t really many places within these narrow corridors for him to hide. 

He looked around the corridor he was in for something to help, there was no service trolleys left outside or plates that could be thrown but there was a couple of fire extinguishers in case of emergency. An idea quickly formed as he grabbed the one in front of him, he took a deep breath and then threw it towards the team of four, the heavy thud of the extinguisher's body hitting the floor got the desired effect that Reese needed, a distraction.

“What the hell?!”

Reese quickly stepped out from cover and took a shot at the extinguisher, the bullet piercing through it’s thick metal body as it’s contents came rushing to the surface, spewing it’s contents everywhere and creating the perfect smoke screen for Reese. He ran into the plumes of white powder and smoke and took down the first man he came into contact with, smacking him with the rifle across his face, followed by a blow to the back of their head, knocking them out cold, he then darted to the next man, he grabbed his arm and threw him over his shoulder, slamming him onto the floor and then dislocating his shoulder. The third man managed to move in and take a swing at Reese but Reese dodged the attack by ducking under the arm, grabbing it and elbowing the man in the face over and over again before he then hooked his fingers into the mans jaw and pulled his head back, knocking him off balance before dropping him like a stone, stamping on his chest, hard. That left one man and he was standing before Reese with his gun raised, Reese just smirked and slowly raised his hands to his head.

“I guess you got me”  
“Get on your knees!”

Reese smiled and obliged, dropping to his knees slowly as the man warily approached him, his hand reaching for the walkie talkie on his chest. Reese furrowed his brow and before the man could react, Reese struck out, punching him in the groin, causing him to buckle over in pain. As Reese stood up he grabbed the man by the throat and slammed him against the wall, his grip tightening against his windpipe, restricting his breathing.

“What do you want?” He squeeked  
“I want you to check in when they ask for you to check in”  
“And if I don’t?”  
“I’ll come and finish you off” Reese growled

He dropped the man, watching as his body crumbled to the floor before the man tried to scrabble to his feet, Reese watching him like a big cat stalking its prey, waiting for the right moment to strike and just as the man got to his feet, Reese struck, shooting out his kneecap and ensuring the guy wouldn’t get up in a hurry.

“You son of a bitch!” He squealed  
“Sorry….can’t risk you running to your boss, oh and one more thing, I'll know if you squeal on me.” Reese replied as a twisted grin spread across his lips. 

He playfully patted the man's cheeks and then made his way back to the catering room, keeping his gun up in case there was any more of them lurking in the corridors that weren't accounted for, he approached the catering room and carefully opened the door, checking in on the two he had knocked out previously. They were still out cold but to make sure they wouldn't squeal or catch th attention of others, Reese tied napkins round their mouths in order to gag them, he then called the lift and stepped in, closing the doors behind him. He then tapped his ear piece. 

“Mr Reese are you okay?” Came the panicked voice of Harold  
“Never better. How's Pine?”  
“Hanging in there, despite their impatience.”  
“Well hopefully it won't be much longer before I can free him. Already cleared two teams, will hopefully make it three”  
“Don't forget Reese you have teams on Lobby level”  
“Oh I know but they'll be helping me ring in the new year.”  
“I.. I Don't understand, ring in the new year?” Finch asked perplexed  
“You'll see” Reese replied before he tapped his ear piece.


	3. Thirty minutes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Reese has thirty minutes left to take down the rebels and get Pine out of the vault room in one piece, without injuring any hostages. A tall order considering the scale of the operation. Will Reese find a way to save Pine in time?

He pressed the button for the eighteenth floor, prepared for what was to lay in store for him, as far as he knew from the comms chatter, the third team were still on the eighteenth floor sweeping through, which made sense considering the eighteenth floor had a few penthouse suites, which meant a couple of high paying customers were undoubtedly residing there, waiting to watch the new years celebrations from the comfort of their room. Unlike the smash and grabs of the lower floor teams, this team were told to be more thorough and potentially consisted of more than six members. Reese switched from the rifle, to the pistol he had acquired from one of the soldiers from the second team, he loaded the clip into gun, cocked it and put a bullet in the chamber ready.

“Finch, how many penthouse suites are on the eighteenth?” Reese asked

“Three Suites Mr Reese”

“Then there will be Three teams of Three. Things might get slightly tricky”

“Oh...that doesn’t sound good”

“Might have to use my imagination” Reese replied as the elevator reached it’s floor.

The doors opened up, Reese quickly surveyed the area and then slowly stepped out of the elevator, taking note of the empty service trolley and fire extinguishers in the preparation room, he then noted the corridors were quiet, indicating to Reese that the teams had already forced their way into the rooms and were possibly already interrogating the guests and robbing them of their possessions. He will need to lure them out one by one and take them out as quietly as he can, so not to raise any alarms. A tall order but not impossible and certainly not something beyond Reese’s level of expertise, all it needed was a little creativity. He approached the first door and rattled the handle to get the attention of the team inside, he knew they would have one guy watching the entrance and exit and it would be him that would respond to the noise first. Reese moved out of the way of the peephole and stood patiently to one side, watching as the door slowly started to open, the muzzle of a rifle peaking out. After a few moments the rogue soldier emerged from the room cautiously, he peered round the door frame and was swiftly cracked around the jaw and smothered into a single arm choke hold. He could feel cold steel against his left temple, a gun forced against his skull

“What do you want?” The soldier gulped

 

“I want to say hello to your friends” Reese growled “And you’re going to take me to them”  
“And If I don’t?”

 

“Do you really want to take that risk?”

The rogue soldier had no choice, he raised his hands up and slowly moved forwards, back into the penthouse suite, the remaining members of his team standing over the occupants of the suite in the main living room, their hands over their heads as they lay flat on the ground, terrified of their intruders. All was calm for a moment before chaos entered the room, guns were quickly turned on the new intruder, their comrade held in his grip with a pistol held firmly to his skull.

“Let these people go” Reese ordered

 

“Or you’ll do what?”

 

“Do you really want to find out?”

 

“You’re one man, you hardly pose a threat”

“Really?”

Two shots were fired, two rogue soldiers lay on the ground clutching their legs, crying out in sheer agony while the third man was released from his captors hold but the gun still remained trained on his skull. He gulped as he rapidly raised his hands up in surrender, willing to do whatever this man asked of him.

 

“Please don’t hurt me” The man whined “I’ll do anything”

“Anything?” Reese asked

“Anything”

“Alright...Switch places, you give me your gear, I’ll give you the suit and you get to stay here with your friends”

The man agreed, he shed his uniform quickly and handed it over to Reese. In return Reese handed a gun to one of the hostages and instructed them to shoot the man if he tried to run. He then entered one of the bedrooms and changed into the uniform. He folded up his suit, stepped out the bedroom and handed it to the soldier he had stripped down.

“Wouldn’t want you to catch your death” Reese said with Sarcasm in his voice

He left the suite and went back to using the rifle, since he left the pistol in the hands of one of the guests for self defence. He then began his relentless mission to take down the remaining two teams, using his disguise to his advantage he’d infiltrate the rooms, posing as another member from another team, once in he’d take them down from the inside, getting finch to disable their comms and playing static noise in order to disorientate them, enough for Reese to disarm them and immobolise them, breaking limbs and shooting out kneecaps if it was safe to do so. He was swift, clinical and efficient, he didn’t break a sweat while he caused hell and mayhem. Three teams taken down in less than ten minutes a new record by his standards.

“Told you it would be easy” Reese said confidently after disposing of the final team.

 

“That maybe so Mr Reese but there is still the matter of the teams on the lower levels and Pine”

 

“How much time do I have left Finch?”

 

“Half an hour at least”

 

“Should be plenty of time, managed to acquire a disguise and some grenades”

“We can’t risk explosives Mr Reese!”

 

“Don’t worry Harold...they’re smoke grenades”

He tapped his earpiece and headed back to the service elevator, hitting the button for the lower concourse levels. He had half an hour left to stop the rebels and save Pine, twenty of those minutes would be spent on getting to the vault, leaving ten minutes for Reese to clear the lobby teams. The disguise will work in his favour but only briefly, once he unleashes chaos he will undoubtedly blow his cover, a familiar situation he has been in a few too many times before, minus the hostages, which made it a delicate situation, one slip could cost the life of an innocent and Harold wouldn’t be too impressed. He was going to need to blend in and avoid trying to take the teams down by himself. Get in, get Pine.

“Harold I’m gonna need you to guide me to the vault”

“You are aware that their are keycard entries along the way”

 

“Can you bypass them?” He asked

“It shouldn’t be too much of a problem if you can get hold of a keycard”

“Good job I kept hold of the one they gave me” Reese replied

Once the lift had reached its destination, the doors opened up and Reese stepped out into the kitchen once again, to his own welcoming party.

_____  
Thirty minutes were never meant to be long, drawn out and life threatening but it wasn’t an unusual situation to be in if you were a former soldier, you become accustomed to the minutes feeling like hours, the rising tension in the air as the deadline draws close, waiting to see if your captors will stay true to their word if they receive the ransom or if they are playing a sick mind game where you’ll always lose. Every minute becomes a death sentence , every breath of air becomes your last but rather than break, beg and plea for your life, a soldier allows their training to take over, to accept your fate and remember your expendable, that if you die, you die serving your country and being a hero.

These situations weren’t alien to Pine. He had been in a few in his time with the British Army and MI6, The first time was the rigorous interrogation training he was put through. His whole squad had their heads covered with old sacks, hands binded and they were bound to a metal pole in a pitch black room and made to listen to nothing but static noise, a tactic used by special forces as a means to break down new recruits and make them crack. It was excruciating and the noise drove many recruits stir crazy, they would give up vital details to their captors, just so they didn’t have to return back to that room of static sound. There was many times that Pine wished he gave up in that session but somehow he managed to stay resilient and it frustrated the higher ranking officers, that this rookie wasn’t going to hand over what they wanted, despite the amount of exposure to the noise. He later found out that he was in that room for three hours, it could have been longer but his squad didn’t hold out so well.

That experience alone woke him up to the realisation that he was just another number in the army, easily replaceable if he made a mistake that would cost him his life. He knew what he was signing up for but the training was a wake up call to the realities of what he had signed up to do but rather than back down, it made him more determined, he trained harder and focused on what he set out to achieve, to serve and protect.

From then he went to afghanistan with his unit and a few weeks in, he and his team were caught in a sniper trap, they couldn’t move from their location, tension was running high and their only support was a patrol that was half an hour away from their location. You could cut the air with a knife, every single soldier within the unit were on tenterhooks, every sound was a potential threat lurking close by, every movement was closely scrutinised and every minute that passed, agonisingly dragged by. Half an hour felt like hours.

He was accustomed to the mind games, the intimidation and the constant threat to his life, he knew how people like them worked, he had seen it many times before in his life. Break in, get what you want, clean up and cover your tracks, so it would make sense to get access to the safe and then stick a bullet between the eyes of the man who let you in there in the first place, that’s after you soften him up and give him a few things to think about. For Pine his captors didn’t quite believe that he couldn’t stop the update for the safe, they firmly believed that Pine did something in order to deny them access to the safe.

“Do you really think you can hold out for another half hour?!” The leader spat as he cracked his pistol across Pine’s jaw “Stop the update or I’ll smash up that pretty little face of yours”

Pine winced with pain, the metallic taste of blood flooded his taste buds as the crimson liquid gushed into his mouth. He leaned to one side and spat it out before receiving another blow to the face.

“I have already scanned every finger on both hands, scanned both my eyes and tried to get in with my voice, it hasn’t worked, I even asked it to stop the update, it didn’t respond. I CAN’T stop the update, I tried!”

“It’s a bit convenient that the update should happen when we walked into the room” The leader snarled “How do I know you didn’t instruct a command?”

“If I did, you would have heard me. They bring the update forward an hour on new years eve, something they have done since the threat of the Y2K bug. It’s just bad timing on your behalf, you should have came at midnight you fucking dumbass!”  
Then he felt the cold steel metal against his temple, the tell tale sign that his captors were close to breaking point. Pine would need to calm the situation down.

“You blow my brains out, you blow away an easy access into the safe, just wait half an hour and I can let you in”

“How do we know this ain’t a trap?”

“If it was, the place would be crawling with S.W.A.T teams and armed police...and we’d be hearing a hell of alot of gunfire”

The man growled and then struck Pine across the head with his gun, dazing Pine momentarily before he stepped away, tapping the gun on his thigh with impatience, they clearly didn’t take into account any hold ups that could occur. A flaw, an error in judgement and this clearly pissed off the leader who was more frustrated with himself, choosing to lash out at Pine rather than admit fault.

“This was supposed to be a quick, clean and easy job, I was supposed to be home and celebrating by the time the new year comes around but here I am...stuck in this damn place waiting for a fucking computer update!” 

“The bane of modern day life” Pine quipped, noticing the look that was being thrown his way

The leader reached for his radio to call in his teams but received no response from any of them, he tried them multiple times but each time he was met with radio silence.

“Great...Comms are down as well”

Pine raised a brow, radio’s always worked in the vault, regardless of the fact that the vault room was encased in thick steel walls designed to safeguard the vault. This had to be the work of Campbell and his IT friend, who probably found a way to disrupt their comms, like blocking their radio frequencies, creating a black spot around the hotel that disrupts all radio communication. A good idea in theory but it only angered their leader further as he threw his radio against the wall, smashing it against the wall before he looked at his men, standing in the vault room awaiting their orders.

“One of you, go and find out what’s going on out there!”

One of the men saluted him in response and left the vault room, gun cocked and armed, Pine listened as his footsteps disappeared down the corridor but then, suddenly they stopped abruptly. Pine blinked as the comms suddenly came back to life with a crackle and a fizz.

“Alpha leader, come in Alpha leader” Came a voice over the radio  
Pine’s eyes widened, he knew that voice, that husky whispery voice that would send most women into a spin, that voice that always managed to send a shiver down Pine’s spine, that voice that made you feel safe and at the same time warned you that danger lurked. He knew who it was on the other end of that radio, he also knew that he couldn’t have been too far away if he was taunting them.

He watched the leader strife over to his remaining guard and snatched the radio from his hands, placing it close to his lips.

“This is Alpha leader, what the fuck has been going on up there?”

 

“Some man in a suit came along and took out the teams searching the floors” The voice said calmly

“The man in the suit?! That fucking clown?!”

“He can’t be that much of a clown if he managed to take down twenty one of your men on his own.”

“He managed to wipe out EVERY team searching the floors?!” The leader responded with panic in his voice.

“Yeah, he made it look easy too...cut through them like a hot knife through butter” The voice continued “

“What about the lower teams?!”

 

“Managed to slip past them without them batting an eyelid”

“Then why didn’t you do anything?! Why did you let this fucking asshole in a suit get away from you?!”

There was a pause before the radio came to life again with a small chuckle, Pine swallowed hard, awaiting the reaction that he knew would follow after the conversation.

“You know, I have to say you didn’t train them very well, sloppy mistakes were made which made things a little too easy and yet you expect me to take this whole operation seriously when your men can’t even stop a single guy in a suit?”

“Who the fuck are you?!” The leader snarled

“Have I not made it obvious to you? I am him, I am the clown who took down three teams and snuck by your last line of defence. I am the man in the suit”


End file.
